


Disinformation

by arkosic



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-05
Updated: 2016-05-05
Packaged: 2018-06-06 13:04:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6755149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arkosic/pseuds/arkosic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Tracking isn’t the problem, Sarge,” he cuts in. “Even if I can’t work out exactly how she did it, her leaving—them leaving—isn’t the problem. The problem is she hasn’t come back.”</p>
<p>A missing scene between seasons 10 and 11.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Disinformation

“What do you mean, gone?”

“I mean a thorough reconnaissance of the area turned up nothing and, assuming everyone’s telling the truth, the last person to see either Carolina or Epsilon was me. Two days ago.” Wash sweeps a hand through his hair, aware even as he does it that the gesture gives away more than he would like. “I mean _gone_ , Sarge.”

“Thought the story was we were trapped here.”

“So did I.”

The trooper seems to mull on that for a moment, and Wash settles his weight back against the charred edge of the crates. Piles of discarded debris don’t make for the most civilized of backdrops, but it gives them some privacy and he needs that if he wants this talk to go anywhere useful. God forbid the common soldiers catch the opposing leaders of the Reds and the Blues chatting civilly.

Sarge breaks the silence with a _hrmm_ , canting his head. “Reckon I recall her as having a few extra thingummies to her name than the rest of us.”

“The armour enhancements? That’s my best guess,” Wash says. “And if anyone was going to manage it…Carolina has the skill-set.”

“She didn’t share this little jailbird routine with you, though.”

“No,” he says shortly.

“No Freelancer tricks? Secret messages scratched into your bedpost? Smoke signal or two-”

“Tracking isn’t the problem, Sarge,” he cuts in. “Even if I can’t work out exactly how she did it, her leaving—them leaving—isn’t the problem. The problem is she hasn’t come _back_.”

The head stays tilted, and Wash can only picture the look being shot his way—he’s removed his own helmet quite deliberately, but it’s not a gesture he expects to be returned. Just one of a few tactics aimed at tempting out the side of Sarge he knows exists; the side that can propose surprisingly shrewd observations, so long as it can be kept from going off on a tangent or arguing circles with his men.

Almost in time with his thoughts, the Red says, “So you’re saying we shouldn’t be expecting a show of team spirit on that front.”

“What?” he says, startled. “That’s not—no, that’s not what I’m getting at. I meant that there must be a reason for the delay.”

“Don’t mean she’s reasoning in our favour.”

“I know Carolina-” To his dismay he falters there, visibly, words catching on unwelcome doubt because no that’s not the truth, the truth is that he _knew_ Carolina, just the same as he _knew_ South and Maine and CT, once upon a fractured memory ago—he shoves it down and says in forceful defiance of the past, “I _trust_ her. Whatever her reasons, she wouldn’t leave us here to die.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Sarge says, but there’s none of the skepticism to his words that would put Wash’s hackles up, and Wash decides not to question the sincerity beyond that. “What’s the plan, then, Pollyanna?”

He stalwartly ignores the dig and tilts his head back to glance up towards the empty, open sky visible past the arching stone walls. Unfamiliar sky, but becoming less so. “No plan. Well, same plan, rather. Even if I could work out how they did it, even if we could replicate it ourselves, there’s a chance she’s staying out there not entirely by choice and we’re not fit enough to risk running blindly into that.” He levels a flat stare back at the Red. “Which _is_ why I’m here. Just…be on guard.”

Sarge snorts loudly. “We’ve been fightin’ since before you were spit-shining the shoes of that Director of yours. You just worry about keeping those Blues in order.”

That jibe doesn’t bounce off quite so easily, and Wash takes up his helmet from where it’s resting and settles it back into place, thumbing the seal. “Right. How could I doubt you.” Time to set this conversation at a close before he gets too strong a reminder of why he avoids having them. “Well, that’s all I wanted to brief you on, and I’m sure you’ve had enough of me assessing your defenses as it is.”

“ _I knew it!_ ”

He makes it a few steps out past their impromptu conference room when something else occurs to him, and he pulls up short, leaning back around at risk of a shotgun barrel being waved in his direction. Mercifully, the only weapon Sarge offers him is a dark grumble. “Don’t tell the others that she’s missing. If they ask, say she’s left, but until we know more it’s better if they take it to be all part of Carolina’s plan. I want them alert, I don’t want them alarmed.” A remembrance of just what kind of military company he’s been keeping this past year draws out a sigh. “And that might be some of the most unnecessary advice I’ve ever given, but I’m serious.”

Somewhat surprisingly, Sarge doesn’t rise to the opportunity to slander at least one of his soldiers, instead giving him one final dose of those measured looks. “You don’t think that might give the impression you weren’t meaning to get at?”

“Carolina and Epsilon could have avoided giving any sort of wrong impression. They didn’t, so I guess they’re just going to have to deal with that. Besides,” he says, a last parting caution as he turns back in the direction of the Blue camp, eyes rolling within the privacy of his helmet, “hurt feelings won’t cause _nearly_ as much trouble as panic.”

**Author's Note:**

> And then hurt feelings proceeded to be the major subplot of the entire season. Who knew!
> 
> It niggled at me a bit during this season that either Carolina and Epsilon looked like huge jerks for abandoning everyone else to starve, or everyone else looked like huge jerks for assuming they'd do that. This was my attempt at patching that hole closed.


End file.
